# How long have you gone... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 4, 2000, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-gone/44040 "2000-12-04T23:58:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-gone/44040/21 "2000-12-05T04:26:15Z")
Several days. Best guess is well over a week when I was a child. We had more useful things to do with water than bathe. We were also fairly poor. ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-gone/44040/22 "2000-12-05T05:22:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bettie \* > \*\*The longest was 5 days. Checkpoint official during a sled dog race. I smelled bad enough on my own, but that was before taking urine samples from the dogs for drug testing. \*\* Lemme get this straight…they test the _dogs_ in those races for _ **drugs?!?!** _ ---
**Author:** ![Bluemonchichi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Bluemonchichi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluemonchichi)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-gone/44040/23 "2000-12-05T06:15:34Z")
I think about a week and a half. Another one of those, had the flu and couldn’t get out of bed things. Now, out of laziness or business, I think the longest I have gone is 3 days. I shower everyday 99.9% of the time, but there are those occasions. ---
**Author:** ![Rasa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rasa/32/3578_2.png) [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-gone/44040/24 "2000-12-05T06:47:07Z")
[quote] _Originally posted by oldscratch_ **99% of the time I do.** I can confirm this. He definitely took one this morning. 🙂 Me, longest was like 4 days. We had no hot water in our apartment, and cold showers are way out. Ick. Luckily it was winter. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Pinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dr.Pinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Pinky)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-gone/44040/25 "2000-12-05T07:38:17Z")
6 months. Body cast. I did get pulled behind a speedboat on a board after wrapping my plaster in plastic bags (because I couldn’t figure out how to water-ski in that condition) and I attempted to drive my brother’s motorcycle. Went about a week when we attempted Devil’s Tower (a loong time ago). On of the guys I went with had just come back from India. His comment on my desire for a shower was along the lines of: we got sanitation, they got spirituality. Americans are more obsessed with scrubbing off the animal stink of our true nature (I’m no different; I take a shower in the morning before going to work & take a bath with my 3 year old almost every night) than most people on this planet. We’ve got a billion dollar industry in soaps, shampoos, and perfumes. I think we’re trying to sweep something under the carpet. ps: the plastic bag wrap thing didn’t work. Water got in, and the plaster got all skanky. So revise that 6 months to about a month & a half. & I still took washcloth baths on my exposed parts and the occasional shampoo. ---
**Author:** ![oldscratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-gone/44040/26 "2000-12-05T08:16:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rasa \* > \*\* > I can confirm this. He definitely took one this morning. 🙂 > \*\* :o :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-gone/44040/27 "2000-12-05T13:21:20Z")
5 days. Had high fever, and there was no hot water in my building for a week! Tried to take cold bath. That was led to the 5 days. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-gone/44040/28 "2000-12-06T07:33:15Z")
How interesting. Barring serious disease or injury, it seems to be about 5 days. As an unpleasent extreme. Consider how recently baths even once a month were common. Yup, I feel kind of nasty if I don’t bath in, say, three days, but that’s pretty recent isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-gone/44040/29 "2000-12-06T08:24:45Z")
One things’s for sure: I needn’t have felt so bad about going for three days. I still can’t believe it’s necessary to test sled dogs for drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Louie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Louie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Louie)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-gone/44040/30 "2000-12-06T08:28:32Z")
6 weeks. I was a slob when I was a kid. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Melpomene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/0ea827/32.png) [@Melpomene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melpomene)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-gone/44040/31 "2000-12-06T16:24:23Z")
14 days. I think. _thinks_ Yeah, 14 days or so. I was on a backpacking trip. We did get to place ourselves into a freezing cold lake halfway through, but I just splished some water on the important areas. We also couldn’t bring toothbrushes or deoderant!! And you know, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be! 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-gone/44040.md?page=1)